Episode 40: Why Moms Need Antioxidant Power

Welcome to the Beauty of Better podcast, where we help moms thrive in health and faith.

Morning, mamas. Welcome back to Beauty of Better. We are continuing our nutrition series.

And you know, we've had so much fun with this, and we just love how we can look at food and look at how it benefits our bodies, and almost be like food is medicine. That's actually a trend in research. And we just love that.

And so today, to continue our nutrition series, we are going to look at different antioxidants. And we're going to actually talk about three specific ones today. We're going to look at cinnamon, and pomegranates, and hawthorn berries.

And something that's unique about these is they are all antioxidants. And antioxidants, really, you can just think of that as, it's a substance that protects our cells, and it specifically protects our cells from free radicals.

And free radicals are just a way of saying there are other molecules in our body that can cause cancer and disease, chronic disease, heart disease.

And so when we have antioxidants in our body, it really fights those and neutralizes them so that they don't damage our cells. And so when we're talking about these foods and supplements today and how to get them, that's what we're looking for.

We're looking at how do we protect ourselves from different diseases and cancers so that we can really live at our best.

1:28

Cinnamon's Many Benefits

And so I'm going to kick it off, I think, let's start with cinnamon. So is that, Cristiana?

Yeah.

You want to take that? Yeah.

I'll take it. I'll take that one. So cinnamon, we said that is an antioxidant.

It also has some research has noted that it has antibiotic and anti-inflammatory protective effects as well. So kind of a small spice could have a potential benefit in several ways for you.

Cinnamon, also just to be aware, we've talked about potassium and magnesium. Cinnamon actually has bits of potassium, magnesium and calcium. So that kind of ties in to some of our previous talks.

So if you missed those, go back, listen to those about why those are important as well. But I'm going to focus a little bit about the anti-inflammatory effects. So when it says anti-inflammatory, that's talking about chronic inflammation.

So for like months or longer weeks, not just when you hit your head on something and it swells and it's healing, that's like an acute inflammatory effect, I guess you could say.

And so inflammation is when your whole body's immune system is responding to that stimuli that they're saying is harmful. So they send the troops of all the blood to go fight against that infection and bring about healing.

But chronic is when those troops are being sent, but really, there's not that danger there. And so we don't want to have that chronic inflammation, and we'll have future episodes if we can break that down a bit more.

But just as we're kind of defining antioxidant and free radicals, also just kind of defining we're focused on chronic inflammation here.

So some of the ways that our family likes to incorporate cinnamon in food sources would be sprinkling it on smoothies, we'll put it in oatmeal. Sometimes if we make sweet potatoes, we'll sprinkle that on the sweet potatoes.

And then we might even do like bananas with peanut butter and cinnamon as well. So and one of our favorite things, which we drink in the fall when it's nice and cold outside is cinnamon tea.

So we boil cinnamon sticks, and there's a little bit of sugar, and it just brings that smell of fall through the house. And it's one of our favorite kind of fall beverages as well as just having that cinnamon tea.

So small dosages, like we're not going to give you exact numbers today, like you need X amount or this. But we need to be aware of large dosages because that's not what we're talking about.

We're just saying like, hey, this is designed, but we don't want to have a specific number necessarily tied to that with our conversations that we're having today.

And then supplementation, like if you don't like the taste of cinnamon, I've known some people who are like, no, I do not prefer to have any.

That's my favorite. Give me all this cinnamon and everything.

Yeah, I've met some people who don't like it. And so that's where we probably talk about supplementation. And then you don't have to taste it, you don't have to smell it, you don't have to look at it.

But there's a lot of ways you can incorporate that in.

Yeah, I think as you were saying, Christiana, it is important to know that with antioxidants and kind of these other food-related benefits, they're not the same as vitamins, and they're not the same as minerals. And so we don't have exact dosages.

We can put some helpful articles on our website that just show some dosages and some benefits that have been seen in research so that we can have that information. But it just isn't quite the same as a vitamin dose that physicians would talk about.

So we are looking at, how do we get these in food? How do we help our bodies? And if they're not in season, or we don't like the taste, how do we get them through supplementation?

5:11

Pomegranate Advantages

So I think that's really great. Kelsey, you want to go next?

Yeah, I love that. Okay, so another one that we're going to talk about today that's really got a lot of antioxidants in it is pomegranates. And I love the taste of pomegranates.

Pomegranates are that tiny little, well, it's the actual seed inside the pomegranate.

But if you're looking at a grocery store and you're trying to find a pomegranate, they're a little bit bigger, probably like the size of your palm, and you want to look for one that should have like deep red skin.

It's a little bit firm and slightly rough when you touch it. And sometimes they have like small cracks in them, but that just means that the fruit is ripe. So that's kind of what a in season pomegranate looks like.

And typically, pomegranates are in season in the wintertime. So if it's not wintertime, you can supplement with it if you can't get access to it. But yeah, they're great.

You can keep them in the fridge for about a week, and they stay fresh. But antioxidant benefits that come from pomegranates, so things like immune support and skin protection are a couple.

But they're also, like Danielle was saying, some of the antioxidant properties in general are related to oxidative stress. And oxidative stress is basically when your body has too many free radicals.

So like she defined free radicals earlier, and we're trying to avoid having too many of those unstable molecules in our body. And antioxidants help because they kind of come in and neutralize the free radicals, which is great.

So things that pomegranates can help with, that free radicals damage and harm. So things like related to your DNA, if there's cancer risk, that's where that would show up.

If we all age, we get older, our skin starts to look a certain way, antioxidants kind of come in and slow that process down.

They can also be helpful to, let's see, Cristiano was talking about inflammation a little bit, but they can also help reduce that kind of chronic inflammation that's systemic all over the place, and can improve blood flow as well, which is helpful,

especially as we kind of approach menopause. And they're also very good for heart health, so they can improve how our blood vessels function, they can help, they can assist in lowering blood pressure.

And let's see, I think I mentioned cancer risk already, but there are some studies that have shown that antioxidants are linked to reducing the risk of attaining certain cancers, specifically for women, breast cancer is a big one.

So these fruits are really antioxidant rich, they're really good for reducing that overall oxidative stress and just reducing the effect of free radicals in our bodies.

They just offer lots of protective effects, it's kind of just, they're really good at protecting from things.

So, and just to, you know, summarize again, pomegranates are in season in the wintertime, so if you can't get access to those or it's summer and you want to put like pomegranates on a salad, I love to do that.

Or pomegranate juice, that's also another way that I can get pomegranates into my diet.

Without added sugar.

Right, right, just without added sugar, just the straight juice. And I'm trying to think of other ways that I...

They put it in salad dressings too.

Yeah.

Like you can have pomegranate in your salad dressing if you make that from scratch. Okay.

Or just eating them. Like you can just eat them plain or throw them on yogurt or things like that.

I was going to also say they have an extremely high amount of fiber. And thinking of that, I think we should have a whole episode where we talk about fiber and soluble-soluble, where to get it. So that'll be for another day.

But yeah, pomegranate is a really high.

Fiber is great. Fiber is great. It helps keep you full.

So that's another benefit.

9:52

Hawthorn Berries Epigenetics

But I'm going to hand it to Kathleen, and she's going to talk about hot thorn berries.

Awesome.

Well, I think what we really want mamas to come away from this is that, whether it's these antioxidants or other antioxidants in your diet that you've heard about, it's so important to find sources that are accessible to you, that are in season, and

that also that you'll eat or your kids will eat. And so with this knowledge of the role of antioxidants, I think it's just important to just sit down and look at, okay, what are the areas that we are already good at getting antioxidants in?

And how can we maybe boost that a little bit? Going back to the cinnamon thing, I actually just found a recipe this week that it's like these spinach chocolate chip muffins that have cinnamon in them.

I got them actually from another blog online, but all of my kids eat them, and it's really hard finding something that all of my kids will like. So we'll probably post that on our Instagram so that maybe you can try that out with your families.

So yeah, hawthorn berries, they have, it's kind of, you might be like, what is a hawthorn berry? It's like these small little brown berries that you don't traditionally see them all the time in the grocery store.

Maybe they're hard to find, but they've long been used in traditional medicine to support heart health and improve circulation, lower blood pressure. However, that's not based on research, that's based on kind of traditional medicinal methods.

But as hawthorn has been studied more recently, it's been shown to be really high in antioxidants and really help protect cells from the oxidative damage. So they have anti-inflammatory roles.

They've also been shown to potentially help with digestive health by helping stimulate bile production, which is what helps our bodies break down fat. And then also, it has, due to its high antioxidant content, it has anti-aging properties.

So you'll often see it in supplement form. That's probably the most common way that you'll see hawthorn berries is in supplement form.

Because there are, I, you know, I was looking up because I personally don't make hawthorn berry jam, but you can make that. Or there's hawthorn tea, maybe for those who like to drink tea, that's a way that you can get it as well.

Also drying them or having them as raw berries for a snack. But yeah, definitely the supplementation form is the most common way of getting in this powerful antioxidant.

But something that I also just love when talking about antioxidants is, you know, there's a whole field of science called epigenetics, and it's looking at the, you know, the different factors in our environment that we can control, like our diet,

lifestyle, exercise, and how that can actually change the way that our genes are expressed. So maybe you were given a certain gene type, you know, in your DNA, but yet whether that is actually activate or not can be influenced by our lifestyle, the

way we eat. And to me, I love that whole field because I feel like it's God's story of redemption.

Just because you have been given this kind of map outline of your DNA, like God has written in redemption into our DNA, and that it's like we get a second chance. We get to choose like, okay, Lord, I'm going to partner with you.

I'm going to choose to look at these foods and embrace these, and change the story that maybe has been given to me.

And so that's something that I get excited when I hear about antioxidants, because they are powerful tools to help strengthen our bodies. And yeah, just wanted to share that.

13:54

Proactive Health Choices

I love that perspective, Kathleen.

I think that's a really, it's a great way to look at it. And I think we don't get to pick our parents, right? You get what you get as far as your DNA goes, and it's so cool.

Your DNA is formed right at conception, and that's like, you've got it, and that's what you've got.

But thinking about how we can actually change, you know, change the genes that we have, or like get some of them to turn off or turn on in different ways.

And I think one of the things that we're really passionate here about, sorry, that we're passionate about at Beauty of Better is just being proactive and taking small steps that you can do every day that can just make these really big changes.

And focusing on your diet, everybody's got to eat, right? Everybody's got to eat. So you might as well focus on the things that you're eating and try to get some benefits from maximizing the whole foods that you're consuming.

And it actually does have that really cool effect. And it actually does affect your cell makeup. Like that is just incredible that God wove that in to the way that we were created.

So yeah, it's just amazing.

That's really great, I love that too, Kathleen. And just, you know, studies show that we can control about 80% of our health. And they say that genetics account for about 20%.

And then there are those determinants of health and factors where it's like behavioral and environmental, and then your nutrition and your exercise and all of that.

So yeah, we just really love looking at how do we take steps to become better, and how do we be intentional?

I feel like sometimes in our culture, it's just eat because you have to, or eat because it's convenient, or eat because whatever you like to taste, rather than what you're eating for.

And so I think even just that mind shift of I'm eating to protect my body, like that's a powerful tool. And I would much rather eat a pomegranate now than take a pill later.

I'd rather have those protective factors now in the food that I'm eating and the supplements that I'm taking, rather than have to take medicine later on down the road. And so, mamas, we just hope that you were blessed today.

We hope that you got some tips on antioxidants and just different foods and supplements that you can take to help protect your body and help make it thrive. And we hope that you take the next small step to becoming better.

Thanks so much for listening to the Beauty of Better podcast.

If you liked today's episode, don't forget to subscribe.

Connect with our community and check out other resources on our website at beautyofbetter.com.

We hope this podcast helped you take the next small step to find the beauty in becoming better.